good, O Mansoul. Hadst thou not had them to help thee, Diabolus had certainly made a hand of thee.1 Nourish them, therefore, my Mansoul. When thou dost well, they will be well; when thou dost ill, they will be ill, and sick, and weak. Make not my captains sick, O Mansoul, for if they JJ be sick, thou canst not be well; if they be weak, thou canst not be strong; if they be faint, thou canst not be stout and valiant for thy King, O Mansoul. Nor must thou think always to live by sense, thou must live upon my Word. Thou must believe, O my Mansoul, when I am from thee, 1 To make a hand on,' to waste, spoil, or destroy.-Halliwell.-(ED.) 2 In this truly evangelical speech, the Lord Jesus is represented as recapitulating his gracious dealings with the souls of his people. Salvation is uniformly ascribed to the free mercy of the Father, and the precious blood of the Son. Every gracious soul will cordially say, 'Not unto me, not unto me, O Lord, but to thy name be all the glory.' Emmanuel then that yet I love thee, and bear thee upon mine heart for ever. Remember therefore, O my Mansoul, that thou art beloved of me; as I have therefore taught thee to watch, to fight, to pray, and to make war against my foes, so now I command thee to believe that my love is constant to thee. O my Mansoul, how have I set my heart, my love upon thee, watch. Behold, I lay none other burden upon thee, than what thou hast already, hold fast till I come.2 informs them of his intention to take down the present town of Mansoul, and to rebuild it in a more glorious manner; in other words, to remove the believer to glory, and raise up his mortal body to everlasting honour and happiness, when sin, sorrow, and temptation shall never more be known. Till this event takes place, he directs his people to keep their garments white and clean-that is, to be holy in all manner of conversation and godliness; to watch carefully against sin, which is the only thing that can hurt them; and to live every day [in holiness and good works] by faith in the Word of God.(Burder.) AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER. SOME say the Pilgrim's Progress is not mine, In name and fame by the worth of another, I scorn it: John such dirt-heap never was, It came from mine own heart, so to my head, Manner and matter too was all mine own, Nor was it unto any mortal known, 'Till I had done it. Nor did any then I write not this of any ostentation, JOHN BUNYAN. THE HEAVENLY FOOTMAN; OR, A DESCRIPTION OF THE MAN THAT GETS TO HEAVEN: TOGETHER WITH THE WAY HE RUNS IN, THE MARKS HE GOES BY; ALSO, SOME DIRECTIONS HOW TO RUN SO AS TO OBTAIN. And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain: escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.'-Gen. xix. 17. London: Printed for John Marshall, at the Bible in Gracechurch Street, 1698. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. young, he had read Bunyan's Heavenly Footman with intense interest, and made a full analysis of it, in the shape of notes, which, having committed to memory, he preached to a very delighted and deeply impressed congregation; that after a lapse of many years, looking over the outlines of his early sermons, he was struck with it, and believing it to be his own composition, had again used it with such extraordinary success, as led his deacons and mem being dead has often similarly spoken-may his voice never be lost in silence or be forgotten. ABOUT forty years agó a gentleman, in whose company I had commenced my pilgrimage, and who had joined me in communion with a Baptist church, about four years previously, came to my house one Monday morning, greatly delighted with the sermon which our pastor had preached on the previous day, while I was engaged in superintending the Sunday school. It had caused a very remarkable sensation, which, if properly followed up, bid fair to occasion an extraordinary revival of religion in the neigh-bers to request him to print it. Doubtless Bunyan bourhood. He, with the deacons, had begged of our minister to fill up his outline, and prepare the sermon for publication, to which hè had consented. He wished to ascertain from me, as a publisher, the expense of printing five thousand copies, being sure that the sale of it would be unprecedented, not only throughout the kingdom, but as far as the English language was spoken. In about a week, the copy fairly written was left with me. The text was Heb. xii. 1, Let us run with patience the race that is set before us.' After the introduction that all men desire heaven, but all do not run for it—the word run was explained as a flying, pressing, persevering. Then seven reasons, and nine directions, were followed by nine motives and nine uses. This, and the striking ideas and language of the sermon, brought Bunyan to my recollection, and, on comparison, it proved to be the Heavenly Footman, with very slight alterations. Having then very recently purchased a neat edition of the book, at a very low price, my inquiry was, whether they would not prefer having the book in its genuine state, especially as it was ready for delivery. I need not add, that all thoughts of circulating the sermon was at once abandoned. In conversation with my excellent pastor, who afterwards for many years bore the honour of a D.D., he acknowledged his obligation to me for detecting the plagiarism before the sermon was published, and explained to me that, when very The title of Heavenly Footman' was probably suggested by the words of the prophet Jeremiah, 'If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? And in the land of peace thou trustedst, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?' zii. 5, and 'Let us run with patience the race that is set before us.' Heb. xii. 1. The word footman does not refer to that class of servants who are badged and dressed in livery to gratify the pride of their masters, nor to that description of footsoldiers or infantry, whose business is designated by the blood-stained colour of their clothes. But it refers to those who are travelling on foot to a distant country, engaged on a pilgrimage from earth to heaven. It is worthy of remark, that the whole of the children of God, of every age and clime, class and kindred, the richest and the poorest, all are upon terms of perfect equality in running the race set before them. No wealth, nor grade, can procure a horse to carry them, or a carriage to ride in; all must run on foot. The only carriage for the foot-sore, weary pilgrim, is the bosom of Christ; he carries the lambs in his bosom, and there is room enough for all; the poorest labourer and the noblest aristocrat meet there upon a level with each other; there is no first class for the rich, and parliamentary train for the poor. And thus it was: I writing of the way years of tempest and fiery persecution. At length, having overcome his own and his friends' reluctance to publish so solemn a work on the conversion of a sinner and his way to heaven, in the form of an allegory, the Pilgrim's Progress was printed in 1678. The wonderful popularity of this book, and the great good it produced, led him again to turn his Grace Abounding into a different form of narrative, in the more profound allegory of the Holy War; this was published in 1682, and in two years afterwards he completed the Pilgrim by a delightful second part. His long incarceration, followed by sudden and great activity, probably brought down his robust constitution; and as the end of his course drew nigh, he was doubly diligent, for in 1688, before his death-day, which was in August, he published six important treatises, and had prepared fourteen or fifteen others for the press. Among these were his final and almost dying instructions to the pilgrim, under the title of The Heavenly Footman, the man whom he describes in the poetical apology to the Pilgrim's Progress, as he that p. 382. 'Runs and runs, Till he unto the gate of glory comes.' The order in which the allegorical works of This treatise sheds a lustre over the latter days of Bunyan were written, very naturally suggest itself our immortal allegorist. It is evidently the profrom his own narratives, and from the dates of duction of a mind expanded and chastened with their publication. It was thus, while suffering his the rich experience of sanctified age. In it we tedious and dangerous imprisonment for Christ's are reminded of those important directions to sake, he was led to write an account of the deal-heavenly footmen, contained in his most admired ings of God with his soul, which work he published books. Is there a Slough of Despond to be passed, in 1666, under the title of Grace Abounding to the and a hill Difficulty to be overcome? Here the Chief of Sinners. While engaged in writing this footman is reminded of many a dirty step, many remarkable narrative, the almost unbounded alle- a high hill, a long and tedious journey through a gorical powers of his mind were brought into vast howling wilderness;' but he is encouraged, exercise'the land of promise is at the end of the way.' Must the man that would win eternal glory draw his sword, put on his helmet, and fight his way into the temple-the heavenly footman must press, crowd, and thrust through all that stand between heaven and his soul. Did Ignorance, who perished from the way, say to the pilgrims, You go so fast, I must stay awhile behind?" He who runs to heaven is told that the heavy-heeled, lazy, wanton, and foolish professor will not attain the prize. p. 382. The wicket-gate, at the head of the way, is allimportant; none can get to heaven unless they enter by Christ, the door and way, so the footman is reminded that it matters not how fast he runs, he can never attain the prize, if he is in the wrong road. p. 382. Did the pilgrims so severely suffer from entering upon Byepath-meadow, and even after that bitter experience were they again misled into a bye path, by a black man clothed in white raiment? Our footman is warned-Beware then of bye and crooked About their journey, and the way to glory.' Having finished his Grace Abounding, he allowed his fertile imagination its full scope, and again wrote the result of his experience in the form of an allegorical narrative, called the Pilgrim's Progress from this World to that which is to Come. At first the thoughts pressed upon him as fast as he could write them, yet he says— I did not think To show to all the world my pen and ink And it was several years before he ventured to p. 381. p. 384. p. 386. dition. No minister felt a more ardent desire to rouse them to a sense of their danger and to guard them against despair than John Bunyan. In his Jerusalem Sinner Saved he thus argues Why despair? thou art yet in the land of the living.' 'It is a sin to begin to despair before one sets his foot over the threshhold of hell gates.' What, despair of bread in a land that is full of corn? Despair of mercy when our God is full of mercy, thou scrupulous fool; despair when we have a redeeming Christ alive. Let them despair that dwell where there is no God, and that are confined to those chambers of death which can be reached by no redemption. In Bunyan's Come and Welcome, he proves that it would be high blasphemy and damnable wickedness' to imagine that Christ would cast out any that come to God by him. He cannot mean the backslider, for Bunyan was such. David also, to an awful extent, and Peter to the denial of his Lord. No, he may mean those who, while neglecting the Saviour, are overtaken by madness, or more probably to such as Judas, Spira, and others who sell their Master, or renounce him. If a man abandons the Saviour, there is no other name under heaven whereby he can be saved; there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin;' he is a despiser of God's way of salvation, and tramples under foot the Son of God. While such a career continues, fiery indignation must be his wretched destiny. They who contemn the heavenly gift-the Holy Ghost-the word of God—the powers of the world to come-if they persevere unto death in such sentiments, the day of grace is past. There have been some who, like Esau, having sold their birthright, sought repentance even with tears, but found it not-they sought it not in God's appointed way. All hope depends upon such sinners coming unto Christ, humbled and broken-hearted. Ile is willing, He is able to save even then to the uttermost, but they will not.' He has promised, and will perform his word, 'him that cometh to me I will in nowise cast out.' The volume of inspiration is crowned at its close with the same cheering encouragement, And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And WHOSOEVER WILL, let him take the water of life freely.' I cannot imagine that any man would have sung with greater pleasure than Bunyan that hymn of Dr. Watts' paths that lead to death and damnation; the way to heaven is one, still there are many well-beaten byepaths that butt or shoot down upon it, and which lead to destruction. To prevent vain and foolish company from calling you out of the path, or from loitering in it, say, I am in haste, I am running for a prize; if I win I am made, I win ALL; if I lose I lose all, and am undone. So it was with Faithful when even Christian, who saw him before, cried Ho ho, so ho. Faithful answered, 'No, I am upon my life, the avenger of blood is behind me.' In the same way the pilgrims refused the invitations of Demas with his silver mine. No, says the heavenly footman, I am running for heaven, for my soul, for God, for Christ, from hell and everlasting damnation. p. 386. Did the poor pilgrims go grunting, puffing, and sighing, one tumbleth over a bush, another sticks fast in the dirt, one cries out, I am down, and another, Ho! where are you? Pilgrim's Progress. p. 236. So the footman is told that he will meet with cross, pain, and wearisomeness to the flesh, with briars and quagmires, and other encumbrances,' through all which he must persevere. p. 387. Did Formalist and Hypocrite turn off into bye-ways at the foot of the hill Difficulty, and miserably perish? Did Mistrust and Timorous run back for fear of the persecuting lions, Church and State? So the man that runs for heaven is cautioned-Some when they come at the cross can go no further, but back again to their sins they go, stumble and break their necks, or turn aside to the left or to the right, and perish.' Be not ready to halt, nor run hobbling and halting, but, like my Lord Will-be-will in the Holy | War, when fighting against Diabolus, get thy will tipt with heavenly grace, and go full speed for heaven. These quotations tend to prove that this invaluable treatise is a summary of the guide books which Bunyan had before written. It was doubtless one of the last productions of his prolific pen. Two passages in the Heavenly Footman appear to favour the idea, that a period in life is, in some cases, fixed, beyond which there is no repentance; thus in p. 379, in a solemn warning against procrastination he says, 'Dost thou know whether the day of grace will last a week longer or no? For the day of grace is past with some before their life is ended;' and p. 382, sometimes sinners have not heaven gates open to them so long as they suppose; and if they be once shut against a man, they are so heavy that all the men in the world, nor all the angels in heaven, can open them. Francis Spira can tell thee what it is to stay till the gate of mercy be quite shut.' It becomes an interesting inquiry as to who Bunyan means by the 'some' of whom he says, that the day of grace is past before their life is ended.' This cannot refer to those who, neglecting the Saviour, are in a perishing con p. 388. VOL. III, 6 |